Sometimes TSTO gives us humorous little moments when we capture our characters doing rather strange things. These posts are all about those strange and funny moments!

When we can, we’ll be posting a Caption This! moment where we want you, the Addicts readers, to put on your writing caps and come up with what you think is happening in the screenshot. Post your captions in the comments below. We can’t wait to see how creative and funny you guys can be!

It’s Saturday. It’s been a long week, so let’s all have a little chuckle! Here’s a Saturday Caption This Round-Up to keep you entertained…

Hey Addicts… Caption This!

This Caption This! image is brought to us by ebron

This Caption This! image is brought to us by Amanda M

This Caption This! image is brought to us by B3 Playing Fool

So go ahead and caption away!

If you’ve got an image you’d like to submit for a “Caption this!” post, email it to us at TSTOAddictsblog@gmail.com you never know when yours might be next!

Wow…what a surprise! Every time I do a “Designing In Downtime” post…it seems to bring on an UPDATE!!! You guys can take up a fund to pay me for my wasted time on those…if only to thank me for shaming EA into regular updates.

So…it looks like we have a pattern. And the pattern is a bit boring. But, it is clear that this game is now all about the writers, and not about some new way that EA programmers can make the game interesting. Writing- good! Gameplay-boring.

But, I have to say…that a piece of the dialogue really caught my attention, and rung a little too close to home this week. The whole issue of copyrights in the digital age is only going to get more complicated and muddy, and has created a whole new genre of “slime-buckets” in the world of litigation…the Copyright Troll.

I wish I could say that I have never had to deal with these vermin…but even as I write this, I am in a battle with a Troll and their slum-bucket lawyers, over something that ran for three days back in 2015, on a test post. Gotta love it.

But, it is a clear warning to anyone in this digital age of “sharing” that you really do need to know the law…and be prepared to do battle with trolls, if you get caught “borrowing” an image, or a song, or a video. “Sharing” is one thing…re-use is another…and KRUSTY may very well be headed into a TON of TROUBLE!

Gather your friends, call your neighbors…or just roll your eyes as I write another one of these intros…it’s update time in TSTO! The long-teased Krusty event is upon us! While this is a mini-event, and really nothing like we thought it would be when first teased, it’s a new event in our games! Of course, an all-new event means all-new premium content in our stores, just tempting us to drop those pink sprinkles!

As we all know, that limited-time label can tempt us to grab everything in sight because it’ll be gone soon. But don’t sweat it! That’s where we come in to tell you what’s worth those donuts and what you might want to hold off on.

Wondering if you should add Sideshow Raheem and Klub Krusty Adult Retreat to your Springfield? Well before you hit that confirm button let’s break down the pros and cons of adding this Krusty combo to your town…

Happy Musings Thursday my friends! Back to your regularly scheduled musings post this week…you’re welcome 😉 . Anyway, this week I’ve got some introductory thoughts about the newest mini-event to hit TSTO, Krusty’s Last Gasp. Some things on the event as we unpack it all, and what it could mean for upcoming events. You know I’ve got some thoughts, so let’s get to ’em…

The long teased Krusty event has finally hit our games! I feel like a clown college, clown-like, teaser came out years ago. And FINALLY EA put it in our games! Better late than never, huh? So what will happen in the new update? Will Krusty get a little coin? Will he live to scheme another day? Will he take advantage of people trying to help him? Well you’ll have to read the dialogue to find out! (of course, we know the answer to the last question is of course. Krusty ALWAYS takes advantage!)

Of course, as with all events, a questline comes with it to help move us through the ins and outs of the event…and unlock all of the prizes. As was mentioned on the rundown post this mini-event is your typical standard mini-event. Follow the questline to unlock prizes and call it a day…until the next event.

So let’s take a look at the questline to see just how to unlock all-new prizes… Continue reading →

There’s a new update in the app stores…this removes Simpsons Babies from our games (officially…) and brings the splash screen back to normal! (however, it didn’t stop the annoying sound effects that play when you start up TSTO…even if your sound settings are OFF. Fix this EA!)

Anywho…new update brings a new mini-event. Krusty’s Last Gasp! (not to pat myself on the back or anything…but I totally called an update earlier today in a conversation with Patric. This sets us up perfectly for a mini-event going right into THOH…)

Mini-Event ends on September 25th. And it has more prizes with it. More than the usual 5…7 in total.

Anyway, it’s about 6:30p here…and I’ve got two kiddos that are crazy after a long day at Daycare and need to go to bed. So I’ll go through all of this and fully update this post once they’re in bed. (check to see that the post says Updated and Complete. At that point it’ll be fully updated) In the meantime…get through Krusty’s first 6s task and then complete the series of 4hr currency earning tasks for Lisa, Bart, Milhouse, Martin, Nelson, Homer, and Flanders. Plus a 4hr task for Krusty.

In this chapter of DID (Designing in Downtime), I am going to address the reality that we have all been hinting at for a while. Working through apathy, brought on by repetitive update types, and the lack of compelling content.

So, in this case, DID could be called, Designing Over Apathy (DOA).

Not that I am implying the game is dead…or that I am encouraging us to “stop tapping” while EA/Gracie figure out the next direction for the game. What I AM going to do, is simply share my views on how/when to tap…and where things have ended up over the past few updates in my town.

DID or DOA?
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Let’s begin first, by admitting that I am somewhat surprised that I am even still writing about new content for TSTO. I truly thought that we were “done” after the huge lag-times in the early part of the year. We seem to be back to at least semi-regular updates, which is a good thing by any measure.

Are the updates repetitive and lacking imagination and challenge on the programming side? Yes.

But, to offset this, the writing for these updates has been hilarious. It has turned into more of a showcase for the writers…and it really shows. Anyone who blasts past the dialogue without really reading it, is missing the BEST part of the game these days.

But, let’s face it…the content has been pretty random.

Let’s take a look at the last couple of event updates…and then I’ll share where stuff ended up in my town, when I took the time to design (if I took the time).

The Flanders Family Reunion was really funny, with the dialogue shining through what was a moderately Non-Canon use of some of Ned’s relatives. But, like many of the updates this year, the offerings were pretty random. I get the “Leftorium,” aggrandized to the SuperStore version. But most of the rest of the buildings, unless they were labeled…really didn’t “wow!” me in regards to “must have this in my town!” I ended up scattering this stuff all over the place. Loads of people placed the Reunion Sign, and even the “herb tent” in Flander’s back yard. I placed most of the random stuff near my homage to Woodstock III (which I covered in another post). I admit I am repeating myself here, but at least KNOWING that I am repeating myself is different than NOT knowing…which is what old people do…or people who have hit the “herb wagon” too much. But, I digress…

When the Flanders clan parties in my Springfield…they REALLY party! It’s a hootendiddlyanny that gets everyone rocking…including a special tribute to Sky Finger, by Fem Fetalle!

Click on Images to enlarge.

As much as I was not a fan of the Simpsons Babies event we just went through (hate having so many versions of the same character, breaking the time space barrier), it gave us a LOAD of content. This really was Content Heavy, and “this event dialogue makes sense” Lite. Some just felt like it was stuff they had sitting around in inventory, others things that were cobbled together to make a story line that felt cobbled together, work…kinda.

Ironically…the ONLY item here that made sense to me, and ended up becoming part of my “Multi-Cultural Heaven is For EVERYONE” section of my layout, was the Cloud version of Bleeding Gums Murphy…who now jams with the angels…or at least a reasonable facsimile of the angels.

The rest? I admit to kind of plopping in a newly opened segment, that I may or may not develop. Random…yes. But, also a real statement about the apathy I am feeling about designing, or tapping, or really engaging much between the events.

We’ll all just wait to see if we get anything else before Halloween…or if we will truly be in the “Tapping Dead Zone,” a state of horror that is worse than almost anything else in TSTO.

Where did YOU put all of your stuff? Are you still playing regularly, or have you hit the DOA zone? Perhaps it should be, “Designing to OVERCOME Apathy?” Or not. So much to do…so little time…and tapping needs to have purpose.

Tapped Out is a game we’ve all been playing for years, but how well do you really know the game? Can you guess buildings/characters/items based on sound? Or are you like me, and play without your sound turned on so you don’t have a clue which sound goes with what? Well, we’re about to find out!

Each week we’ll be bringing you a Name that TSTO Tune game, based on an era of TSTO of our choosing. Each sound effect for the week will all be from a certain time period in the game/event, which we will disclose to you, so base your guess off of that knowledge.

Now without further ado, let’s get to this week’s Name that TSTO Tune game!

Your senses can evoke powerful memories in you. The smell of saltwater can trigger you back to your youth spent at the beach, the touch of cotton can bring you back to memories of your mom, and hearing sounds of TSTO can bring back countless hours spent tap, tap, tapping away.

Over the past 600+ episodes, The Simpsons has taken us on an amazing mathematical journey involving fractions, probability, Fermat’s last theorem, and hundreds of other aspects from the wonderful world off mathematics.

And what better way to start your week, then by discussing math Monday morning?

With our summer Bracket Battle hiatus to determine the Most Desired Episode Content concluded, we resume Monday Morning Math Mayhem anew. And we resume right where the Bracket Battle and Math Mayhem left off.